Tyrannical Supervillains are Scheming and All I Got is This Stat Menu

All I Got is This Stat Menu #3

by J.J. Ackerknecht

Infinite power at your fingertips, and in the hands of your enemies.

After the alien invasion, Anya Nowicki thought she'd settle into the easy a cushy government job, living in the world's most advanced city with her new girlfriend, and generally not dealing with anything more dangerous than meetings that should have been emails. She was right, for awhile.

However, Earth's recent success against the ravenous gnosiphages has drawn the eyes of other extraterrestrial life. Humanity's unprecendented growth across fields of technology and magic thanks to the Archive has the greater powers across the galaxy worried. They've sent three powerful warriors to observe Earth's hosts and--if necessary--put them down for good.

Worse, the brief period of global unification mankind experienced during the invasion is already starting to strain. A shadowy group of Archive-enhanced terrorists has begun to emerge, and if they're not found and stopped, it could mean global war.

With enemies closing in at home and from beyond, Anya and her friends will have to watch their backs, or lose everything they've fought so hard to gain.

Content Warning : This book contains strong language and graphic violence.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction

522 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 9, 2024

Reviews

[Amalga Mat1on · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stat Menu?

This...actually hit pretty hard, in good and, imo, many bad ways. This book took all the accomplishments of the first two books and made them pretty much irrelevant.

No matter how much the heroes won, they just kept losing. Then, after experiencing one of the greatest losses at the climax of the story, it ends with more frustration and a cliffhanger.

There's a lot of empty/drained feelings regarding what happened in this book.

[M L Brooks · Rating 1 out of 5]

Could have been so much better

The first half of this book is Anya sucking up to a government agency despite the boss of it continuing to berate and insult her and the latter half includes a poorly used death for shock value and a less than interesting ending. I wanted to like this book as I enjoyed the previous two however the many factors compiled to make this a less than enjoyable edition.

[Horty · Rating 2 out of 5]

- The third act is horrible -2 Stars for that maybe 3.
- Being fanatic about non-lethal violence is just unrealistic. You can't just give everybody powerarmor and plasma weapons, but nobody dies.
- I don't get why Anya is like not trusted at all and gets shit by officials after all she has done, but Renn seems to be mostly scrunity free
- Ursulas betrayal doesn't really makes sense to me, compared to the simple minded other animal hosts. She hates humans, I get it, but she trusts another human to take all humans away from earth without really understanding how. what? why? And then just changes her mind...
- I don't like the disable Armbands at all. Super inconsistent nonsense. Have pain, while the Archive completly changes your body and brain etc. "Push button to turn the... the... ehhmm... Brainwaves off" wtf
- Garys death makes no sense and is purely to take the Factory out of the story. The Aether master Samaira has stabalized the gathering thingy to dissipate, but the Necromancer Mona with no clue of aether "yankes on a string of aether" she pulls out of her ass or something to activate a boobytrap an aether beginner has made (Samaira literally calls the aether usage beginner stuff). And Gary apparently is still above it, after starting to land the station.
And THEN Anya decides to kill Renn who is half cooked and apparently has brain damage, but can still talk and smile with lips half melted together and the skull poking out. Bitching and beeing too scared to punch someone with destuctive intent all book and then cry about the consequences of not disabling someone properly yikes
- "hooman bad" gets really annoying without context. The aliens are all ultra racist hypocrites. Like ALL of them. And the water warden boss lady does not act like water at all. Just hatefully brute forcing everything does not fit Water Dominion. The Wardens also appear to have the mental flexibility of a stone.
- The whole stat menu has no meaning anymore.
-The Story seems to leave Earth behind, shitting on everything the protags managed to do so far. And outside of Earth there should be no Archive, making the whole starting point of the story irrelevant. Wanna make it a Space Opera? Let the Dominion users be force drafted to the Wardens, not randomly abducted. Anya being arrested by Wardens has as much lawful authority as an american cop arresting a 20 year old european in a european country for drinking alcohol. None.

It is repeatedly said, that Earth is outside of the Space of the big players.

+ some good usage of past events
+ Tuna Sandwich mvp
+ Brody and Pan

[Issy Waldrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The invasion has been dealt with, but life is never going to be simple or peaceful. Humanity has its habits, and when more aliens are added into the mix, things just get more complicated.

I was curious to see what direction the story would go in, and I have to say that I am quite happy with where it went. The wardens, corruption, supervillains - it fits, and grows the story into something so much more.

It's really enjoyable too, a great read. Stressful and times, and a little emotional in others (which is certainly saying something for a litrpg), and the cliffhanger at the end - oof. But also not unexpected. Looking forward to seeing what happens in book 4.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun

The aliens are gone, for now. But now the superpower people are turning villain. A superpower terrorist attacks a world conference. And a power mad politician genders more than helps. The good guys discover that the bad guy is a past hero seeking to unify mankind via mind control under him without their choice. The good guys are falsely vilified and have to seek help from new aliens to take out the bad guy. They save the world, but lose a friend.

A great new story that expands the world and story. Great pacing. Great story. Wonderful narrator. Please enjoy

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long winded but fun

These books feel really long winded in places and can occasionally feel like a chore to pick up, but it doesn't last long and once the story starts flowing again, it's a lot of fun. I like the characters and am completely unsurprised that we end up having to deal with galactic "karens" as space cops. Sounds typical really.

[Ashley Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

what an ending !

Super hyped for the next book. Cried at one point but I love the direction things are going. Can’t wait!

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

What happened? Was really liking this series and this book suddenly has some wild inconsistencies in motivation that let to annoyingly unbelievable characters. Had to drop halfway through.